Reflecting on the Awe-Inspiring Power of the High Holiday Season

Dear Friends, 

This week, as I consider both Rosh Hashanah and the first anniversary of October 7, the idea that these weeks are Yamim Noraim, Days of Awe, feels exactly right. It is hard not to stand on the threshold between the known year that has passed and the unknown one yet to come and not feel this moment’s magnitude. I am awestruck by the enormity of the world, by the hugeness of its pain, and by the stubborn possibility of its hope.  

Last week, I had the good fortune to interview Yochai Maital, Senior Producer of the Israel Story podcast during an event we co-sponsored with the Vilna Shul. It was a deeply moving event, and when I was telling my husband about it, the phrase that came to mind was that the “Wartime Diaries” stories Yochai told “cut through the noise.” They were specific. They were wide-ranging. Though they did not tell a single narrative, they were grounded in a basic human empathy and compassion that mattered to me. I haven’t stopped thinking about them. 

Often, the High Holiday season reminds me to be humble. I am only one person, doing the very best I can. Jewish tradition gives me the chance, each year, to reflect, make amends, and renew my commitments to myself, my family, my community, and my values. It also opens the space to gather with the people I love and, through that gathering, remember that the task of meeting each moment is not one I have to face alone.

I don’t even have to come up with the language to describe it myself. Our liturgical tradition offers imagery of the shofar’s call to action, of our collective responsibilities to one another, and of the promise of rebirth. When I stand in awe, I am standing on the shoulders of those who came before me, and side by side with those I know are right there with me, doing the best we can. 

It’s the same principle as the one that animated Yochai’s program. During our Days of Awe, each of us has a specific set of stories to reflect on, and our encounters with the world and the year that’s passed are inherently diverse. But what this season reminds us is that if we cut through the noise by approaching ourselves and each other with empathy and attention, we can find points of connection and mutual support that can ground us and give us hope. 

One of my deepest reflections on the year that’s passed is my gratitude to the JCC family, which has, authentically, and through significant effort and attention, met this moment through compassion, purpose, and an appropriate sense of awe for our responsibility to our community. I am only one person, only one leader. But throughout this year, I have stood on the shoulders of those who have come before me and side by side with exceptional staff, lay leaders, supporters, and participants, who know that anything is possible when we do it together.  

All of you have been part of that family. It is my sincerest blessing for all of us that this is a year in which our sense of awe is paired with our sense of being seen and cared for, that our understanding of our individual smallness is balanced with a knowledge of the joyful bigness of what we get to be part of, and that our deepest, most human hopes for ourselves, each other, and the world, continue to grow into the light. 

Shabbat shalom, Shana Tovah, and thank you for everything, 

Lily